Before those books, Encyclopedia of Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises (2017) chronicled the 40-year revolution in whale research with first-hand stories and insights into the lives of these highly social, intelligent mammals and the drive to save their habitat. In 2019, he produced an expanded, updated edition of his best-selling Orca: The Whale Called Killer, lavishly illustrated with 90 all new photos, illustrations and maps. His latest books include Planktonia (2022, 176pp, 150+ photos) and Strange Sea Creatures (2021), both of which offer a deep dive into the new species scientists are discovering in the ocean, some of them no larger than a fingernail. An award-winning author, he has written or co-written 25 books and hundreds of magazine articles on whales, dolphins, as well as the deep sea, ants, insects, wild plants and other subjects. Now a world-renowned expert on whales and dolphins, he shares orca wisdom along with stories gleaned from decades of additional field study in the Russian Far East as well as return trips to Canada's West Coast to visit with the descendants of the killer whales he encountered 45 years ago.Įrich Hoyt has spent much of his life on or near the sea, working with whales and dolphins and marine conservation. Hoyt's youthful adventures turned into his life's work. This revised fifth edition includes Hoyt's original account, plus exciting new chapters that bring readers up to date on the revolution in public awareness and orca research that has taken place. Working alongside other researchers keen to understand the life history of the killer whale, Hoyt's group helped to dispel the negative mythology about orcas while uncovering the intimate details of their social behavior.

That all changed when Erich Hoyt and his colleagues spent seven summers in the 1970s following these intelligent, playful creatures in the waters off northern Vancouver Island. The largest member of the dolphin family was then considered too dangerous to approach in the wild.

When Erich Hoyt's Orca: The Whale Called Killer was first published in 1981, little was known about Orcinus orca.

Orca by Erich Hoyt